Saturday, September 10, 2005

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs faces an intrinsic performance crisis that will even aggravate at a time when the labour market grows by 20 per cent annual rate if the concerned authorities fail to meet its financial and manpower needs, said Dr Khalid Al Khazraji, Under-Secretary for Labour Affairs at the ministry.. . .The ministry is suffering from "chronic" problems that had been accumulated during years of former systems, he said. Unfortunately, with the current shortages, the ministry is incapable of taking reform and development actions, he noted.

"Despite of the ministry's written requests and explanations to the concerned authorities, these needs are not being met," he said. "If the situation continues, the ministry, incapable to meet demands of the growing labour market, would crash," warned Al Khazraji. The ministry's labour manpower has reduced by 10 per cent this year against a 20 per cent growth rate in the labour market. Fifty employees have resigned in four months, he noted.

According to a recent Cabinet decision, appointments to vacant posts are not permissible; and any post falling vacant is automatically cancelled. New appointments require a decision from the concerned authority, first to initiate a post and then to process appointments," he said.

The problem lies in the bureaucracy of the system while implementing the decision "The ministry is put in a situation of begging for employees. We are supposed to manage the labour market, but we beg to get appointments of staff. We have to answer many times why and what for the ministry needs employees. If luckily the ministry gets the needed approval, it takes four to five months to get the appointments. Appointments are granted at a time when many changes would have been witnessed in the labour market," he lamented.

The ministry is also facing a severe shortage in the financial resources, and thus rendered unable to meet its operational needs and costs, he said.

I've highlighted the use of "concerned authority" above.

For the ministry to carry out its job it needs more managerial authority than is described in the quote. The question is, why isn't it delegated more authority?